I wanted to point to a delightful column posted on Philly.com (The Philadelphia Inquirer), highlighting the faithful, convictional and consistent ministry of the city’s Tenth Presbyterian Church.
The author of the article, Robert Patterson, admits his bias toward the church — he met his wife there in 1977 and both of his sons were baptized at the church in the 1980s. That being said, Patterson’s piece offers a fantastic perspective on why this church continues to speak with influence in both the city and also in the broader Evangelical world.
He states that Tenth “exerts a calm, steadying influence amid the exhaustion of a waning American Protestantism as obsessed with being relevant as high school girls longing to travel with the popular crowd.”
Patterson seems to appreciate Tenth all the more because of his knowledge and critique of silly-church Evangelicalism. Obviously not one to mince words about ecclesiological lust for so-called relevance, Patterson writes:
Careful not to jump on intellectual, theological, or cultural bandwagons, Tenth has stayed anchored on scholarly, expositional preaching of the Bible as the Word of God and robust hymn singing that would swell Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley with pride. Nor has its leadership entertained any illusions, which animate both religious right and left, that the church can make America more Christian.
Read the entire article here.
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Assuming you know 10th ave is a PCA church…, but still worth noting!
yes…inter tribal Presbyterianism has come a long way since 1973, n’est ce pas?.
Tolkien’s Battle of Five Armies is tutorial toward this development.